by
Patrick Ogungbola
MD/ CEO, BLUEHEDGE REALTORS
We welcome you to the beautiful month of February 2016. It is often said that January is the longest month of the year, but it is amazing that it’s also made up of 31 days like some other months. Whether it’s a long or short month, January 2016 has come and gone; what did we make of the previous month? Are you still keeping to your new year resolutions, if you had any?
For the past few weeks, the events and news of the world economies, most especially, our own Nigeria economy has been uninspiring, to say the least. According to report from www.oil-price.net, ‘the global oil price has fallen in the $20 range. Its rate of decline is all the more impressive, having lost $10 – a third of its value – in one month. Although the price of a barrel of crude oil hasn’t reached its all-time low yet, adjusted for inflation, of $12.45 from December 1998, it will get there in less than a month if the same downward trend persists’.
The situation is much more sympathetic because Nigeria’s economic mainstay is crude oil, and the irony of this also is that the Nigeria’s 2016 budget was based on the premise that the global oil price will not fall below $38 per barrel. For now, Nigeria’s very existence is dictated by the oil price due to her monolithic economic system. We are over the moon when the price is high and under the weather when the price is low.
We celebrate independence anniversaries by marking the numbers, but in reality, the ‘man’ called Nigeria is getting old without learning from previous mistakes. When we had abundance, we squandered all, without being mindful of the fact that there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. It is sheer common sense to save for the days of scarcity, when there is abundance; however, as they say, common sense is not common.
In the event of this occurrence, the easiest thing to do is to look for who to blame; and the easiest target are the country’s leaders, the government. But truly, blames have never been a solution to any problem.
Out of the many recent articles that have been written to address the current situation, I find two very interesting and apt, they are:
– The Parable of Dollars and Dullards by Simon Kolawole (bit.ly/1KjJwgs), and
– Plunging Naira – Before You Blame Emefiele, Look at Yourself by Kenneth Ezaga (bit.ly/1RUaOwm)
The first article points to the fact that we are where we are because we don’t learn from history, and the second emphasized on our insatiable craves for foreign products which have made us largely import-dependent.
The deed has been done; the mistake has been made, so where do we go from here? Like Simon Kolawole said in the closing of his above article, ‘I don’t claim to know the perfect solution, but I don’t think we have chosen the best option’.
Now, for us as individuals, the question is, ‘if Nigeria as an entity is making this grievous mistake, should you be doing the same? The fact that Nigeria is broke is not an excuse for you to be broke. Interestingly, in recent times, we observed a scenario that while Nigerians living in Nigeria are complaining of economic downfall, Nigerians living in diaspora have suddenly woken up to embrace investment in real estate, the reason being that their few dollars or pounds can now buy so much naira. They can now afford the properties of their dream. No matter how bad a situation is, there will always be a positive side to it. While others are complaining, look for creative ways to benefit from the down economy, and as a matter of fact, not everyone is affected by the dwindling economy, as you might have thought. Come out from the woods, and make your life count!
As usual, we want to remind you that we care so much about you, and that when it comes to your real estate investment, we are always here to give you the very best service you can never get elsewhere. That is our promise, and will always be.
We wish you the very best in the month of February.
We remain;
Very truly yours,
